


The Music Lover

by BudBrock



Series: For Family [2]
Category: Disney Duck Universe, DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), Legend of the Three Caballeros (Cartoon), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/M, Family Feels, Songfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26592109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BudBrock/pseuds/BudBrock
Summary: A brief look at the history of Donald Duck through the art of song. Dedicated to our fluffy boy and his broken guitar. R.I.P.Can be read alone but is technically set in the timeline of my story Define Family.I do not own Ducktales or any of the songs I will be using.(Formerly titles Drift Away)
Relationships: Daisy Duck/Donald Duck, Della Duck & Donald Duck
Series: For Family [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934386
Comments: 15
Kudos: 108





	1. Drift Away By Rebecca Sugar

**1975**

_Here in the garden.....let's play a game...._

"Come on Donnie! Let's play!" Della shook her brother blankets and all. In her opinion he had been napping long enough. He should come outside with her and play.

Donald wiped tired hands across his eyes, trying to wake up. Mamma said he should nap, cause naps help you get better. He didn't want to be sick anymore; it made Mamma and Daddy so sad.

'What do you want?' He sloppily signed as he still wasn't allowed to strain his voice and throat.

Della forged ahead as she never bothered to learn the hand talking their parents taught Donald, and were trying to teach her. "Come on! Before Mamma gets back, I wanna go outside and play!"

Donald put his hands over his ears as she whined at him. She kept begging until he gave in. The smile on her face was worth it though. It had Donald smiling for the first time in a long while too. She grabbed his hand and hauled him outside to the backyard by the vegetable garden.

_I'll show you how it's done......._

"You stand here and count, and I'll go hide ok?" Della held his hands in her while she looked in his eyes, trying to be serious. She was about as serious as any 6 year old could get.

He nodded and waited for her to run off before he started counting in his head. He figured 20 was good enough, since he couldn't really remember what came after that.

_Here in the garden, stand very still....this'll be so much fun...._

It didn't take him long to find her the first time, she always liked to hide under the wheelbarrow by the shed. She laughed with delight, grabbed his hands and drug him back to the center of the yard and told him to count again.

Donald wanted to argue, he wanted a turn to hide, but Della was gone before he could "say" anything. Not that she'd understand him anyway. So he counted again and this time he found her behind the oak tree trying to climb it. He tickled her underarms while the were exposed with her hands in the air.

_And then she smiled. That's what I'm after...the smile in her eyes...the sound of her laughter...._

Hearing someone be so happy was a nice change from the worried frowns his parents always seemed to have. If being 'it' forever was what it took, the he'd do it, for Della. It wasn't so bad.

_Happy to listen...Happy to stay....._

The game could only entertain her for so long though. Right in the middle of Donald's counting, Della saw her friend from next door come home with her parents. Without so much as a "bye" she sprinted form her hiding place to the neighbors yard.

Donald didn't know what happened. One minute they were playing and having fun and then the next...Della was nowhere to be found. He couldn't hear the tell tale giggle that usually gave away her hiding spot. Before he could get worried his Mother scooped him up and scolded him for being outside when he supposed to be napping.

_Happily watching her....drift away...._

1977

Donald paced back and forth, waiting for his sister to come back for him. She had said she was just going out to see what Uncle Scrooge was up to but that was a long time ago. She hasn't left him for this long since....since Ma and Dad....but he said she'd be back. He just had to wait...she always come back for him.

_Happily waiting...all on my own....under the endless sky...._

1980

She did it again. Della snuck off to follow Uncle Scrooge and left him. This time at school with the resident bully, who had been waiting for his chance to go after him. He knew all the right things to say, or rather insult. Donald couldn't get in trouble for fighting again, or he was going to be expelled.

This wouldn't be happening if Della were here. But she didn't mean to leave him all alone. She doesn't know that the bully's stalk him like he's prey....he doesn't want to tell her either.  
But it'll be okay once she gets back. Della promised....it'll be ok....

_Counting the seconds....standing alone....as year after year goes by...._

1985

This was getting ridiculous. Della should know better by now than to charge head first into a horde of the undead. But she did it anyway cause "No one can stop Della Duck!". Ugh....If he hears her say that one more time he shouldn't be accountable for what he'll do.  
Donald finished wrapping his bloody knuckles before starting on the gash on his leg, then he had to see to the cut where a zombie got a lucky nick, with a rusty pitch fork, in. He grumbled to himself a little longer before he ran out of steam.

He knows Della doesn't mean to, and if she knew how bad he was hurt she tear herself apart with guilt. Donald didn't want that, besides; if these small wounds were the price to pay to keep his family safe, then he would pay it. After all, he hadn't been to see a doctor in years. Who knows if it's back. And if it is, how long he has.

He'd rather spend the rest of his days making sure she was happy.

1989

_Finally wondering, night after night.....is this how it works? Am I doing this right?_

He couldn't stand her! What right did she have telling him the Navy was too dangerous!? They've been on deadlier adventures than whatever her imagination conjured up! Besides! It was the perfect place to finish his training.

Not that he could tell her or Scrooge about Paperinik or S.H.U.S.H. Even though he was pretty sure the new maid was Agent 22, not that she'd admit it.

This was a good opportunity to widen his abilities and travel...to do his own thing without having to hide it from his family. He wasn't running away Della!

Why was she allowed to run wherever she wanted to go, but as soon as he as much as expressed interest in something he wasn't allowed to do it. He let her run off like a dirt devil, why couldn't he leave for once?

_Happy to listen, happy to play. Happily watching her....._

They saw him off at the docks, waved goodbye. He didn't think she would, after all, she'd been throwing a fit about him leaving ever since Scrooge said he supported him joining. Still, though it hurt to say goodbye, it was nice she finally acknowledge him again.

_Drift away..._

1996

_You keep on turning pages, on people who don't care about you..._

Donald didn't have many friends and fewer he considered loved ones. But he was head over heels for Daisy, still is though he won't admit it. The day she hands him those damn papers, he can honestly say, was one the worst days of his life. Number 2 to be exact.

Worst part...he'll never see his girls again. She was taking them away....

_And still it takes you ages...to see that no one's there..._

They weren't at the docks to pick him up. He knew Daisy wouldn't be there, but he at least expected Duckworth, maybe Mrs. B.

But no one was there.

_See that no one cares..._

He marches up to the manor, tired, depressed and defeated. No one's home, he sent letters, a lot of them, telling about how he met and married Daisy, about the girls about when he'd be back. They didn't even read them.

Donald could see them sitting right there on the end table just inside the door. Left behind carelessly in the chase for an adrenaline high only an adventure could give.

_Everyone's gone on....without you...._

He leaves to find work. For awhile he's a construction worker, then a dishwasher, and finally a barber. Scrooge even gives him a hearty pat on the back and a proud smile, happy with his independence and willingness to work. But Fate does not want Donald to lead a remotely normal life, for he is destined for great things.

1999

Adventure, heroism and valor are in his blood. And all three came calling with a letter, last will and testament from Grampa Coot. For awhile....life's actually.....good. He has friends. His girls and everything was peaceful, relatively. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if Della and Scrooge were okay.

2006

_Finally something.....finally news...._

Della was......WHAT!?

He had to leave now, she has no idea how to care for eggs, or what to buy them, or how to set up nursery, or for how long to sit on them or...or..or ANYTHING! She knows NOTHING!

Great ZEUS! He had to get over there NOW!

_About how the story ends...._

Uncle Scrooge is an idiot....does he really believe Della will wait? Della....their Della, actually wait for something? If this wasn't serious Donald would have laughed. So he tells Scrooge not to do it. It's a terrible idea. His Uncle just hides it instead.

Him and Della argue for weeks....she needs to stay, she's going to be a mom. She can't just run off anymore.

One last adventure she begs him. Just one. Donald puts his foot down. Della doesn't listen and does the one thing Donald fears most....

Della charges gun hoe to somewhere, where he can't follow...

_She doesn't exist now....survived by her sons...._

Scrooge is a mess. He can barely take care of himself, and the manor is no place for three mini Dellas. There were far too many cursed items for them to get into, too many weapons cabinets containing razor sharp blades. Without Scrooge's help, Killmotor is a deathtrap.

So he takes the eggs, and leaves.

After a few weeks, Donald tries to send letters and pictures. There are no replies. After a few years when Scrooge stops looking, Donald gathers the nerve to have his sister declared dead.

2017

_......and all of her brand new.... **friends**....._

She was alive.....she had been stranded....on the moon no less. Donald new several ways to get to the moon. If he had known she couldv'e been found much, much sooner.

Then maybe this whole Moonvasion disaster could've been avoided. Typical Della...too absorbed in her one track goals to realize she'd been duped. That trouble was brewing right under her beak...leaving him to clean up the mess. He knew she didn't mean to. But that excuse was getting old.

It took Della a decade to get off the moon. It takes Donald a month, give or take.

What he sees when he walks up to the Manor is like a flashback to when he got discharged from the Navy. There they all were, safe, sound.....oblivious.

_Isn't that lovely.....Isn't that cool....._

He could tell just from watching, Dewey especially, just how much they liked having their mom back. They didn't even know notice he was there....and gone.

_....and isn't that cruel.....and aren't I a fool to have...happily listened.....happily stayed.....happily watching him.......drift away...._


	2. The Angry Young Man by Billy Joel

_There's a place in the world for the angry young man with his working class ties and his radical plans..._

This was too perfect.

Villa Rosa was a dream come true and now he can give Uncle Scrooge, Della, those bullies and all the ude rich snobs of Duckburg a piece of his mind. Without being caught.

He had so many ideas for what kind of pranks to pull. What kind of payback to hand out. This was justice at it's finest and nobody could tell him they didn't deserve it.

_He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl and he's always at home with his back to the wall..._

He couldn't sleep, not after the latest kidnapping. He and Della had been nabbed by some real bad guys this time. Not some easy Beagle Boys or Glomgold, actual bad guys wanting Scrooge's money.

Course, that didn't change the treatment they got from him. Two would be in the hospital for awhile from head trauma, the third had broken ribs and the fourth a dislocated shoulder and some serious bruises.

He was glad he learned how to defend not only himself but his family too. Though he wished those scum bags had gotten the memo. Everyone in Duckburg knew Scrooge doesn't pay ransoms. From the moment their hoods came off he knew they were on their own.

He finally learns to sleep, lightly with plenty of thing that can be turned into weapons nearby. Or completely barricaded in a locked and silent room. The nightmares are another story.

_And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost and he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on the cross..._

He used to hate the scars under his feathers. They were just constant ugly reminders of all the times he got hurt on adventures; that his family didn't care.

The raised lines of flesh still hurt sometimes, between phantom pains and the actual skin pulling, he'd lie awake in his bed at night just trying to breath as his body ached.

Now, after everything he's been through, with his family, friends, kids......they're a reminder that he's still alive. And that no matter what, he'd do anything for his family. Anything....including survive.

He has three boys and four girls who need him. What's a little more pain? What's another scar? It's nothing he hasn't handled before.

_And he likes to be known as the angry young man...._

That guy was one of the one's who kidnapped them. He'd recognize those eyes anywhere. Della was oblivious to the man they just ran into but Donald glared at him hard.

What the guy did next surprised him. His eyes bugged out and he began to sweat nervously. Putting his hands up he backed up, more like limped, slowly away from the young duck. He was clearly terrified and he should be.

Donald smirked and took a step forward and that was all the guy could take. He tried to run, but this was the first time Donald had seen someone faint before they could get away.

Knowing that the bad guys were afraid of him made him very happy, and relieved.

_Give a moment or two to the angry young man with his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand...._

But Daisy.....

He says that way too much. He knows. And now he'll never say it again.

Their marriage had been the best thing to ever happen to him. He knew somewhere deep down, if only because of his luck, it wasn't going to last. But he tried...and tried.

Even though Daisy could understand him it always felt like she was putting words in his mouth, speaking for him, assuming, misunderstanding him on purpose. Using his words against him.

When had it turned? When had it gotten so bad?

_He's been stabbed in the back, he's been misunderstood. It's a comfort to know his intentions are good..._

Scrooge gave her the rocket anyway...even when he said not to....even though he screamed and yelled against it.

He should have known. Scrooge does what he wants, when he wants. That's where Della learned it.

It took him a while but he packed up the entire nursery. He didn't want to leave his Uncle, it felt too much like abandonment. But he knew him, probably better than anyone, and Scrooge would be volatile for quite some time while he sifts through his grief.

This was not a good environment for kids. He would not repeat the same mistake twice, he learned his lesson with the girls.

_And he sits in a room with a lock on the door with his maps and his medals laid out on the floor...._

Legally speaking, he wasn't allowed to pawn any of his service medals. Even though he'd rather get rid of them than his ancient map collections. They were just hunks of medal. If he ever went back into the service then they'd all be on his record, he didn't really need them.

But knowing his luck someone would find them and report him. Then he'd be in big trouble. So he gave a sigh and picked up all of his favorite treasures, gently put them in a bag, said goodbye to the boys and girls and headed for the nearest pawn shop on foot.

No reason to waste the little money he'd make on gas or a bus ticket.

_I believe he's passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. He's found that just surviving is a noble fight....._

Usually he'd stay to fight the giant monster that guarded the temples his Uncle favored on adventures. But the temple itself was collapsing, and while he knew Webby was good at taking care of herself, he'll thank Agen- _Beakley_ later, he had his boys to think about.

Let the crumbling stone take care of the monster and if it lives, they'll be nowhere near it to find out. He has Louie under his arm, _1_ , he mentally counted. Huey was running next to him, _2_. He swerved hard to the left and scooped Dewey up before one of the collapsing pillars could squish him, _3_.

His eyes trailed around looking for white feathers as he yelled at Huey to get on his back. The duckling scrambled up quickly and without question. Donald spotted Scrooge helping Webby over an already fallen pillar obstructing their path. _4 and 5_.

His stride didn't even falter. He took a running leap, planted his feet on the wall, pushed off and used his momentum to flip over the 7ft high obstacle. He ignored the pain in his knees when he landed, focused solely on getting his family out of here.

_He once believed in causes too, had his pointless point of view, but life went on no matter who was wrong or right...._

Donald was done, done with the hero business, done with S.H.U.S.H, done with the Time Police, done with the saving the world and solving it's problems.

He had his own issues to deal with. Like the family who didn't miss him and the wife he didn't have, the daughters he's not allowed to talk to and his new unemployment status. He didn't even get discharged with his actual rank. Realistically he wouldn't have moved up the ladder fast enough to have it, so now it's classified and he's stuck with an Enlisted's benefits instead of his officer's. The government really takes care of it's own.

Donald was tired of being the unsung hero, invisible to the world. Where the only place his deeds mattered didn't technically exist. The world didn't care, it didn't want to be saved.

It just doesn't want to _die_.

He was done. If they didn't want it, then he wasn't going to keep breaking his bones to give it to them. Let them rot in their own corruption. It's their mess anyway, they should be the ones to clean it up.

Kay K and Lyla tried to convince him otherwise but it was already too late. He only had so much life left to live and he had plans for it.

_And there's always a place for the angry young man with his fist in the air and his head in the sand. And he's never been able to learn from mistakes, so he can't understand why his heart always breaks....._

There were two woman, only two, he had ever truly been "in love" with. He had many lovers, many people he loved. But these two....he would always love them. No matter what.

His first....oh, his first. A fiery Latina, passionate about her job, an iron will, steel determination, more stubborn than a McDuck and more loving and caring than Grandma Duck.....don't tell her he thought that.

He met her as Paperinik, swooped in from between two buildings to save her from a mugging. She didn't need it and when he dropped down to find she had already beaten them.

When he landed he scared her, she swung hard without holding back. It had been a long time since someone had been able to knock him out with a punch, let alone a single hit.

When he came to he swore there was an Angel standing over him, swearing profusely in Spanish, and fretting over him. It couldn't have been a more perfect moment.

He never should have said goodbye.

_But his honor is pure and his courage as well and he's fair and he's true and he's boring as hell...._

" **Bad luck**.".....

" **A jinx**."....

" **The worst**."....

All words his family used to describe him. It was all true, but it still hurt.

" **I get it, you're the fun Uncle and I'm not. HAVE FUN**.".....

" **Sorry, I meant our coolest non-rich Uncle**."....

" **Come on, Uncle Donald is....kinda cool**.".....

Donald worked hard to make sure this life was normal, that Donald Duck was boring. From Paperinik to Double Duck, Calisota Drake, The Three Cabelleros, the Magical World, even just being Scrooge McDuck's nephew was a dangerous life.

The last thing he needed was a villain to show up and give him a heartache. He'll take boring, because boring is safe.

Even if the boys didn't want to do anything with their boring Uncle. He'd give his life before he let anything happen to his kids.

_He'll go to his grave as an angry old man...._


End file.
